Rhamma
Rhamma is the capital city of Tarkos, and it's main trade hub along the Eastern Channel. It is also the seat of power for the Jae Obamen, and the place where he resides. History: Rhamma was an unimportant village at the coast of the Haesci Empire a long, long time ago, but it grew naturally thanks to its convenient location along the Great East Channel. When the Haesci Empire fell and was reduced to a small amount of tribal kingdoms, Rhamma was mostly abandoned, its citizens moving to other cities or finding other places and means to provide for themselves. When the Aurons crossed the Great East Channel and started mining salt in Tarkos, Rhamma was one of the cities in which they and their prisoners resided. These prisoners were used as slaves to extract salt from the mines, alongside some of the natives of Tarkos. This resulted in a lot of buildings being remodeled into slave pens. About fifty years later, Rhamma was *the* first stop for any slaves and prisoners transported to Tarkos. This was because the mountains to Rhamma’s North were rich in salt, so the Aurons kept them in the slave pens before moving them up to individual mining camps. Then the revolution happened. An escaped slave had united the Koromi tribes of Tarkos, the remnants of the Haesci Empire. He became an important political figure, and most importantly, an important religious figure. Rising to the title of the Jae Obamen, he completely reformed Koromi religion, and revolted against the Aurons. Twenty years later, and the Aurons retreated from Tarkos. Rhamma had been conquered seven years prior to this, in the Great Camel Siege. The Jae Obamen made it his seat of power, as a statement against the Aurons and as a sign of reform. If there was much reform to begin with. The excavation of the salt mines continued, but this time the Aurons were the slaves. Prisoners of war met the same fate they had brought upon the Tarkosi. This was the beginning of the first real era of Tarkosi history, and it marked the beginning of the golden age for Rhamma. It had gone from a near-abandoned city to the capital of the nation. But most important of all, the Tarkosi traded in salt and slaves. Both were very wanted across the seas. Rhamma bloomed, it grew to nearly twice its size in a single generation. The markets of Rhamma were the biggest in the world, lined with foreign cloths and exotic tools. Two generations after the first Jae Obamen, his successor had remodeled the original Auron slave pens into the largest auction house in the East. The wares that were sold there, were of course the same that were kept there by the Aurons: Slaves. The irony was seemingly lost on the former slaves, because the slave industry boomed in Tarkos more than anywhere else in the world. Whereas in nations like Temaria there were strict rules upon the ownership of slaves, or the circumstances in which someone were to lose their freedom, in Tarkos they merely needed a slave brand. It was as easy to buy a slave, as it was to become one. These unfortunate souls were either forced to work in the salt mines, construct giant monuments to the Jae Obamen or were mass-sacrificed in the most horrible of fashions to appease the Tarkosi’s obsession with divinity and evil. For about seven generations, Rhamma was not the capital city of Tarkos. After an independent Auron nobleman’s failed siege at Rhamma, the Jae Obamen decided to move his seat of power more inland to the city of Sonam, that was protected by the surrounding Karakotu Mountains. A beautiful palace still stands there, but it is not comparable to the gold and silver quarters of the Jae Obamen in Rhamma, the Suna Palata. As it stands, Rhamma is a beautiful city, despite the acts committed there, and despite its history. Giant buildings of marble, gold and architectural wonder stand erect in the city, archways and statues only adding to a beautiful whole. It is a trading hub full of life, merchants shouting their best offers to attract potential buyers, mothers and children going to the markets to buy food full of spices and ingredients that cover the market in a cloud of a pleasant, sweet smell. It is also a relatively clean city, with people taking baths once a week, if not daily, in the Galasi Pula, a grouping of pristine public pools, with tributary channels snaking between to connect them all together. The only people one could expect to remain dirty in Rhamma are the slaves, but even they wash themselves relatively frequently in comparison to some of the other cultures of Firth. Rhamma is one of the most beautiful cities in Firth. Yet it is also the one where the vilest acts are committed. All in all, it is a strange city with two faces. That of the beautiful city of riches and wonder, and the city where men and women lose their freedom and their lives. Category:City